Walking along Beach Road on my way to Golden Mile Food Centre today, I stumbled upon Chuan Kee Duck Rice & Roasted 全記鸭饭烧腊. I must have past this way hundreds of times but today I noticed that a few tables at the coffee shop had plates of braised duck and pork. Curious, I went inside to check.
Among the few stalls inside the gritty Luk Lu Eating House coffee shop was this little braised duck and braised pork stall. Yeah, since I started my blog a decade ago, I had been looking out for little hidden gems, those inconspicuous, little known, dingy stalls that serve tasty food. Chuan Kee Duck Rice & Roasted 全記鸭饭烧腊 looked like a candidate, so I postponed my plans at Golden Mile Food Centre 😂
Mr. Tay runs the stall with his cheerful younger brother. They are from a family of braised duck sellers. The Tay family once had a few braised duck stalls including one under the Whitley Road hawker centre. Now, they only have this Beach Road stall which has been around for 45 years.
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| Whitley Road Food Centre. Singapore Memory. |
Whitley Road hawker centre operated from the 1970s and was demolished in the 1980s. It was uniquely located under the Thomson Flyover. It was popular with trainees at the Police Academy and people who lived around the Thomson Road / Toa Payoh area. I lived in Toa Payoh during my teens, so I remember the hawker centre well but not any particular food stall 🤷
After ordering, I was told to take a seat and food will be delivered like in a restaurant 😊
Tables were set up along the corridor for customers. This scene could be in Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, or even Yaowarat in Bangkok but is right here at the fringe of Singapore's Central Business District.
When the food arrived, I felt it was a generous serving for SGD5.
I requested for duck breast, my favourite cut of duck meat. The meat was tender, slightly chewy - I like the texture. It tasted savoury with a hint of duck gaminess and only trace amounts of spice like star anise - I like the flavour. It was savoury but not salty. It was a thickened sauce but not to the extent that it was starchy or gooey.
The duck came with crunchy achar and crushed peanut which gave the dish sourish, sweet, nutty notes. This probably pleases a lot of people, but I
A lot of flavours - savoury sweet rice with savoury duck with sourish sweet achar.
If that is not enough, there's the sourish savoury spicy chili sauce.
I like Chuan Kee Duck Rice but I prefer cleaner tasting food nowadays. I will be back but the next time, I'll have the duck but with plain white rice instead of the default yam rice.
The next morning, I went back to Chuan Kee Duck Rice & Roasted and got this braised duck with pig skin and a porridge. No achar 😄 Everything here for $5 total.
True enough, I like the tender juicy duck better without interfering flavours from achar 😄 Taste is subjective lah.
The pig skin was soft but not limp. It had a savoury taste from infused soy sauce and traces of spices. Nice.
The porridge came already dribbled with lor or savoury braising stock and a dusting of white pepper. There were also a few pieces of you char kway (Chinese fried crullers).
The texture of the porridge is like Hainanese style i.e. the lumpy rice grains were still visible, almost dissolved but not yet totally (as in Cantonese style). I like this style as it has more texture and feels more filling (just me lah).
The porridge was already infused with savouriness from the sauce and there were slivers of ginger inside. The porridge paired very with the braised duck and pig skin. (They also have braised pork belly and duck offal but I didn't order today.)
If you are looking for Chuan Kee, it is inside this building at the intersection of Beach Road and Aliwal Street. Across Aliwal Street is a huge Ya Kun coffee outlet which you can't miss.
I asked the boss why so many duck rice stalls in Singapore are called Chuan Kee 全記. So far, I haven't got any answer. Anyone knows?
Written by Tony Boey on 7 Mar 2022
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